English open to a FTA with Mexico, including the Bad Hombres

Seems Kumara Bill isn’t worried about the Bad Hombres in Mexico. Nor will he let the new wall get in the way of a trade deal.

A bilateral agreement with Mexico could be on the cards if a multi-nation deal can’t be done to replace the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Prime Minister Bill English has appeared open to discussing a bilateral agreement with Mexico after it was raised by the nation this week.

“The president has already instructed me to convert the Transpacific Association Agreement (TPP) into bilateral agreements with all countries with which we do not have free trade agreements,” Mexico’s economic secretary Ildefonso Guajardo told the Financial Times.

Mr English said on Friday the government was already talking to other TPP parties who are keen to “progress something” after the US pulled out of the initial agreement.

“It’s in our interest generally to get a bigger agreement moved forward than to go for a whole lot of bilaterals so we’d probably want to test that option first and then think about bilaterals,” he said.

“There’s a real potential for our exporters in Mexico and we want to find a way to make that happen.”

Trump isn’t wrong. Multi-lateral trade arrangements have poorly served those involved. Just look at Europe and NAFTA for examples. In the end, some partners are essentially taking a hit to accommodate others.

Bilateral trade deals are by definition a lot fairer, and New Zealand may as well work on knocking all the TPP counties off one by one. Because the USA won’t be answering the phone for some time yet.

– NZN via Yahoo! News

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